New Year’s Day will be a real red letter day for many prisoners in the
Czech Republic. Under a new criminal code being introduced on January 1
some crimes are being reclassified as misdemeanours – meaning those who
are currently in jail on such charges will either be released or have their
sentences reduced.
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It’s the kind of story that makes film scenarios - a husband and wife on
the run after a daring escape from prison, just a few months after their
wedding. But this story ended badly – within 24 hours of the man’s
escape, the police had caught up with them. The man was dead, the woman
critically injured. Who are the Czech Bonnie and Clyde and what happened on
their desperate flight to safety?
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An annual survey on the drug situation by the European drug agency released
on Thursday has confirmed that when it comes to the abuse of illegal drugs
marijuana and ecstasy by young users, Czechs rank the very worst. This is
despite the fact that over the last few years or so the situation in the
country has actually somewhat improved.
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Wednesday afternoon saw roughly one hundred right-wing extremists protest
in front of the Office of the Government, in reaction to a
carefully-planned crackdown by police earlier in the day. Officers moved in
in the early hours of Wednesday morning to arrest almost 30 individuals
across the country suspected of ties to extremist and neo-Nazi groups.
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Plagiarism, students’ work going missing, fast-track degrees completed
within months, and dead professors still on the lecture roster – these
are a few of the allegations to have been brought against Plzeň Law
Faculty in recent weeks. What started as a media investigation into
plagiarism claims, levied against a number of senior professors at the
faculty, has turned into a much larger scandal which implicates some of
this country’s best-known politicians.
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A newly-released study on substance abuse among young people in Europe
makes alarming reading for Czech officials. The results of the European
School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) carried out in 35
European countries in 2007 have just been released, and they show Czech
teenagers topping many of the tables in terms of abuse of controlled
substances such as alcohol, nicotine and drugs.
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A high profile Prague clash between squatters and their supporters and
police has highlighted the number of empty and deteriorating buildings in
the capital. It has also put the spotlight on the powerlessness of local
councils and authorities to force reluctant owners to take action.
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Prague 2 district council is waging war on what it calls an ‘extreme
situation’ on the capital’s Karlovo náměstí. Mayor Jana Černochová
has said that steps must be taken against the increasing number of drug
addicts, pickpockets and prostitutes found on the downtown Prague square.
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Sculptor Pavel Opočenský has seen many twists and turns in his life.
After signing Charter 77, he left for Germany to eventually settle in New
York. When he came back after the fall of communism in 1990, he got
involved in an incident in which he killed a skinhead in self defence. The
trial took four and a half years before he was cleared of criminal charges.
In the meantime, Pavel Opočenský became a respected sculptor – but in
2003, he was sentenced to three years in jail for sex with minors.
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It’s the thief’s turn to cook dinner! Why are so many tourists spending
hours in a certain public toilet. And, how many men in the Czech Republic
can say they are Vaclav Havel? Find out more in Magazine with Daniela
Lazarova.
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